Australia will begin their T20 World Cup against South Africa on 23rd October.
Australia’s pace spearhead Mitchell Starc has issued a warning to other teams, saying that they should not read much into his team’s form as they’ve been preparing well for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
The Australian cricket team has not been in the greatest form lately. The cricketing heavyweights have managed only 8 wins in their last 24 T20I encounters.
They recently were pounded 4-1 by the Bangladesh cricket team in the T20I series and invited a lot of criticism for their performances. However, with the ICC T20 World Cup around the corner, the Aaron Finch-led side would be hoping to regain as a group and put in some dominant performances in the marquee tournament.
Read Also: Gambhir feels Hardik Pandya will only be in India's XI if he does proper bowling in warm-up games
Ace pacer Mitchell Starc says that his team didn’t play a full-strength squad in the last few T20I series but now they have every player available and their ultimate goal is to win the World Cup.
“Over the last three years or so, we haven't always had our full-strength Twenty20 team available. Now we've got everyone available we're looking forward to getting stuck in and hopefully showing the class that we have. We've set out to win the World Cup, we don't want anything less,” Mitchell Starc told reporters.
Starc remarked that they have a pretty balanced side with the mixture of some young and experienced players who are in good form and it’s up to them to deliver now.
"We had some really young, inexperienced players and some young guys ... thrown in the deep end really quickly. Yeah, not our best tour, but obviously now we've got our full-strength team available, guys coming off (the Indian Premier League) in really good form, it's up to us now,” he said.
Related: BCCI invites applications for coaching roles in India senior Men's team
The left-arm pacer concluded that they need to kick-start their tournament well by playing against South Africa and then carry the momentum forward. He added that he’s looking forward to being a part of the T20 world winning squad.
“You almost have to play some of your best cricket from the get-go. It's important for us to play well against South Africa and hopefully carry that through the tournament. It's no secret that we haven't won a T20 World Cup, so I'm looking forward to hopefully being a part of our first one,” he concluded.
Australia is placed in the Group 1 of the super 12 with West Indies, England, South Africa and two qualifiers. They will kick start their campaign against the Proteas on 23rd October.
(Reuters inputs)